What is Soil Stabilization
Sep 02, 2022
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What is Soil Stabilization?
Soil stabilization is the process that you must go through to make the soil more stable for construction of roads, runways, and parking lots. Many times, the soil that you need to use for these projects are not stable enough and must be made that way. If you make the soil more stable, it will withstand the construction, as well as fair well in the freeze/thaw intervals.
Soil stabilization is a process that you must know how to do in order to do it correctly. You can do some research on your own or contact people who know about soil stabilization products in order to see what you need to do. There are people and companies who specialize in this, just give them a call and they can help you out.
Below are a few things that you need to know about soil stabilization and how to make sure that your soil is stable so that you may build on it. These are just a few of the things that you need to know just to get you started. You can do some research and find out more.
1. You Need to Know What Soil You Are Working With
There are many types of soil that you can be working with, and you need to know which one you are dealing with before you can stabilize it. The different types of soil are sand, silt, clay, and loam. Sand is the most popular and the most stable soil that you can work with. It is made from the breaking down of rocks into small granules of sand. Sand does not change shape, so this makes it more stable.
Silt has very little organic material because it is also made from rocks that have deteriorated. Some people think that it resembles clay, but clay is much different. Silt is often preferred by farmers for planting crops because of its density. Clay can have plasticity when it gets wet and can change forms easier than silt or sand.
There is more research that you can do to learn more about soil types. You can look here to get a little better education about soils. This site can tell you more than this short article can.
2. Different Types of Stabilization
There are also different types of stabilization for the different types of soil. These are listed below:
Chlorides: Magnesium chloride and calcium chloride are two types of chlorides that are used. The type used depends mostly on the geographic location of your work. Both are applied in the same way, usually by spraying the chlorides from a water truck. This is then usually followed by mixing the chlorides with the soil and then going back over it to compact it. Sometimes it is just sprayed on and not mixed, but this is not as stable.
Polymers: Polymers are a chemical compound that has molecules that bond together to form a repeating chain. Polymers hold the soil together very much like glue holds things together. Polymers are usually used in different ways and especially for unpaved materials like dirt and pond linings.
Lime and Cement: These are the most popular ways to stabilize soil in the United States. Lime and cement are used by mixing the soil with the lime or cement and then it is used to have better resiliency and strength. If the soil is higher in plasticity, more lime or cement is added to make it more stable. You can learn more about lime and cement at this site: https://www.cement.org/docs/default-source/cement-concrete-applications/sn2066.pdf?sfvrsn=5f54fdbf_2#:~:text=Among%20the%20various%20stabilizing%20agents,load%2Dbearing%20properties%20are%20improved. It can help you to understand this concept even more.
Fly Ash: Fly ash is similar to lime and cement and can be used as a subbase to paved roads, as well. Fly ash works better when the soil is wet because the moisture is taken away by the fly ash. This can be a great base to the paved roads and will help them to be more stable. Fly ash is used in areas where the soil is wetter than other places in the United States.
Enzymatic: This is a fairly new method for stabilizing the soil and uses live organisms to make it more stable. Enzymes can be used for roads, subbase, control of erosion, control of dust, and many other things. Using enzymes to help pave your roads can help these roads to last for about ten years without major repair or replacement. This makes this product one that is becoming more popular for paving roads. This is beginning to be more popular due to the fact that it is more environmentally friendly.
Mechanical: This is changing the physical properties of the soil using a machine of some sort. Usually the machinery is a large, compacting machine that can make a large force that is compressive. This is not a very popular way of stabilizing the soil, but it does have some advantages that include that it is environmentally friendly and can be permanent. This is where you see the big steam roller machines packing down the soil along newly paved roads.
Geotextiles: Geotextiles are materials that is usually used to create some stability in areas where the soil erodes quickly. These geotextiles come in different sizes and shapes in order to do the job that it is needed to do. Different applications need different sizes and shapes to be able to work.
You must decide which type of soil that you are working with before you choose a stabilizer method to use. Different soils depend on different types of stabilizers in order to be as stable as they can be. The better you know your soils and their makeup, the better you can use the right stabilizer for the job. You can do more research on the types of soils in your area to make the right decisions for the job that you are going to do.
Some of these types of soil stabilization are more environmentally friendly than others, and you will have to do more research to determine which is best for the job that you want to do.
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